The Battle of the Bulge.

 The Battle of the Bulge.

In the predawn hours of 16 December, 1944, German anti-aircraft searchlights illuminated the night, and the dense Ardennes forest. The Germans bounced the beams off the low cloud cover and thus lite up the battle field.

That morning the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, code named, “Watch on the Rhine,” also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, was an attempt to push the Allies back. 

It was nick named “The Battle of the Bulge”, because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line. It became the largest battle fought on the Western front in WWII.

The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans.

 Their assault came in early morning at the weakest part of the Allied line, an 80-mile poorly protected stretch of hilly, woody forest (the Allies simply believed the Ardennes too difficult to traverse, and therefore an unlikely location for a German offensive). 

Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat.

One particularly effective German trick was the use of English-speaking German commandos who infiltrated American lines and, using captured U.S. uniforms, trucks, and jeeps, impersonated U.S. military and sabotaged communications. 

The ploy caused widespread chaos and suspicion among the American troops as to the identity of fellow soldiers–even after the ruse was discovered. Even General Omar Bradley himself had to prove his identity three times–by answering questions about football and Betty Grable–before being allowed to pass a sentry point.

The ruse was only partially successful. Where their planned acts of sabotage failed, the knowledge that Germans in GI garb were acting as a fifth column did cause a great deal of consternation among the Americans.  

The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi atrocities abounded, including the murder of 72 American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy. 

Historian Stephen Ambrose estimated that by war’s end, “Of the 600,000 GIs involved, almost 20,000 were killed, another 20,000 were captured, and 40,000 were wounded.” 

The United States also suffered its second-largest surrender of troops of the war: More than 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry Division capitulated on the Schnee Eifel, but only after fighting a desperate defense that saw the expenditure of all of their ammo and medical supplies resulting in members of the 106th actually throwing stones at the enemy.

The battle would not end until better weather enabled American aircraft to bomb and strafe German positions.

During this famous battle the 45th Infantry Division’s progress was halted. The 45th had to spread out to cover that portion of the line once covered by Patton’s third Army as it turned north.

The 45th was tested just as hard as those units in the bulge when they hotly engaged German SS in the Alsace Mountains during the German operation dubbed “Operation Windhund“, what some have called “The southern Battle of the Bulge.